Who this is for

This guide is for Canadian nonprofit staff, volunteers, and board members who manage their organization's website. Whether you have a dedicated web team or one person wearing all the hats, this is a practical starting point for catching obvious accessibility issues.

What to check first

Start with the pages that support your core mission: donation and fundraising pages, event registration, volunteer sign-up forms, service information, and your contact page. These are the pages your community relies on most.

  • Donation pages: Can someone select a donation amount, enter their information, and complete a payment using only a keyboard? Are form fields clearly labeled?
  • Event and volunteer forms: Are required fields clearly marked? Do error messages explain what went wrong and how to fix it?
  • Service information: Are your programs, eligibility, and application steps written in plain language? Can they be understood without relying on visual layout?
  • Images and media: Do photos of events, staff, and community members have meaningful alt text? Do videos have captions?
  • PDFs and documents: Are downloadable reports, applications, and brochures available in accessible formats?

Common accessibility issues on nonprofit sites

  • Donation form barriers: Unlabeled payment fields, confusing error recovery, and payment iframes without titles can block donations.
  • Missing alt text on community images: Event photos, staff headshots, and program images without descriptions exclude screen reader users.
  • Unclear link text: Links like "donate here" or "learn more" do not help users who navigate by link list. Use descriptive text like "Donate to the food bank program."
  • PDF-only content: Important information available only as PDFs is harder to access, navigate, and update than HTML pages.
  • Low contrast or small text: Nonprofit sites sometimes use muted colours or small font sizes that are hard to read, especially on mobile devices.

What automated checks can help with

Use the SiteCheck Canada website accessibility checker to scan key pages. It detects missing alt text, form label problems, empty buttons, missing page language, heading issues, duplicate IDs, iframe title problems, and some contrast failures. The accessibility issue library explains each finding in plain English with practical fix steps.

For donation pages specifically, see the donation page accessibility checklist for focused guidance on payment forms, iframe titles, and error recovery.

What still needs human review

Automated checks cannot verify whether your donation flow works with a screen reader, whether your PDFs are tagged, whether your video captions are accurate, or whether your content is understandable to someone who cannot see the layout. Plan manual review for these areas using the Canadian website accessibility checklist.

Suggested workflow for nonprofits

  1. Identify your 3–5 most important pages: donation page, contact page, service/program page, and event or volunteer page.
  2. Run each through the website accessibility checker and fix critical and major issues.
  3. Use the donation page checklist to test payment and form flows manually.
  4. Review PDFs and documents. Where possible, provide HTML alternatives.
  5. Use the accessibility statement generator to create a draft that honestly reflects your current status.
  6. Read what automated checkers miss to understand manual review priorities.
  7. Get qualified review if your organization has funding, procurement, or legal accessibility obligations.

Useful SiteCheck Canada tools

Recommended next steps

Run the checker Scan donation, event, and service pages. Donation page checklist Focus on payment forms and error recovery. Generate a statement draft Document current status. Open the Canadian checklist Plan keyboard and screen reader review. Read what automation misses Understand manual review priorities. Browse the issue library Fix common findings.